Excellent post by DL Legends, the Association is in disarray particularly at grassroots level where the dropout rate from 16 onwards is massive. Every year in Ireland parents start their children at various sports, as someone who was at the coal face we are under serious pressure from other sports & parents watching sledging, very violent tackles, poor or no implementation of rules & zero respect for grassroots as Inter County is king, don't choose GAA. The Association is rudderless at every level. DL Legends has a very valid view but unfortunately you will be shouted down or as is now standard in every game sledged by those who say it's all great & are involved in the politics of it & those who can't see beyond their own club/county for the overall good.

moc.dna (Galway) - Posts: 1212 - 31/08/2015 20:56:14    1779446

I would agree with the original poster. Surely it is time to examine the game at every level and see what we need to do?

What we badly need.
1. Improved assistance to the referee, preferably a 2nd one.
2. A defined tackle
3. Respect for referees, they are human and while we might not like the decision, we should respect it rather than throwing bile at his direction.
4. A calender of matches which allows people to have a life outside GAA. People should know for months when matches are happening or likely to happen. Not the week before and be told to cancel the holiday.
5. Respect for children playing our games. I have seen parents cheering wides, laughing at kids who fall or drop a ball or anything. I have heard kids say they hate the screaming on the sideline at the matches. For god sake, these kids are 8-9 years of age, they just want to have fun and there is lots of time for the game to get serious 10 years later.

Pinkie (Wexford) - Posts: 4100 - 01/09/2015 09:13:03    1779547

Sure enough, there were some unsavoury incidents on Sunday. It wasn't the free-flowing game most were predicting but was it ever gonna be? GAA people are typical Irish people, warts 'n' all. Passionate yet love to complain...about everything!

keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 01/09/2015 14:30:06    1779923

There is things that could be done:

1)First off scrap the black card, unmitigated disaster, if you want to punish cynical play then punish it, allowing a sub to come on isnt a punishment or a disadvantage. The sin bin is a punishment. A team down to 14 or 13 for periods of the game is a punishment. Most cynical play comes in the last 10 mins anyway when players are happy to take a black card to slow a game down safe in the knowledge a fresher player can take the pitch. It is such a bonkers rule in beggars belief.You want free flowing football, teams down to 14 and 13 going for it in that space gives you that.

2) define the tackle, what is and what isnt, even the black card rule introduced is ambiguos, tug of jersey not a black card unless the player goes to ground, must be intentional etc etc. Bonkers. Define what cynical play actually is, not of this intent crap an sin bin for it.

3) Introduce the mark from a kick out only and introduce a rule where the kick out must go past the 45.

4) start rewarding skill the mark is an example, there could be something to be said for a point scored from outside the 45 from play be worth 2 points. Blanket defence against a team kicking scores worth 2 points, teams will come out.

5) Ban the handpass point, something not right for me that a team can go the full length of the pitch and get a score without kicking the ball once.

6) Like in basketball you could stop teams returning back across half way with the ball, would stop this backward passing and keep ball when a team can be pressed into one half.

7) have a TMO where possible and have them miked direct to the referee guiding him where required.

These are just a couple of ideas but first on the list for me is the black card and its removal.

tearintom (Wexford) - Posts: 1344 - 01/09/2015 15:27:33    1779977

Your missing the point keeper7. This is not a reaction to Sundays game. Rather the association and the media as a whole. There have been ridiculous comments made about teams, individuals and players which do have an effect on the individuals themselves and how the GAA is percieved as an whole.

Even in the SG they were questioning the appointment of Joe Mc Quillian. Why?? What message does that send out. Players will lambast referees on the field which is unacceptable. All of these actions, both on the field and off it are replicated and filter right down to underage levels. There are many, many other examples which are slowly but surely eroding the original ethos of the GAA.

The way in which the game is being played and coached in some underage levels is becoming worrying to say the least. There is an undercurrent of nastiness that seems to be acceptable at all levels at the moment. And unless we as GAA people as a group address such issues they will never be dealt with.

DLlegends (Donegal) - Posts: 503 - 01/09/2015 16:01:35    1780021

We havent become anything... we are as we always were.
A nation of begrudgers, hypocrites, bandwagon jumpers, high horse riders, moralists, shysters and hucksters with a bit of paranoia thrown in the further north you go.

BIG SACKS (Tyrone) - Posts: 1681 - 01/09/2015 16:08:45    1780034

Big Sacks Brilliant spot on.

Theres no doubt that the GAA has some major flaws but lets be honest over all it has made a massive contribution to Irish society

One of the main problems is hat coaches and team management are always ahead of he rule makers.The cynical dragging a man down has been replaced by a player tugging a jersey to avoid a black card.For all its detractors the black card has opened play up to a certain degree.I would favour a sin bin to be honest look at the way Mayo took advantage of the Dublin 14 men in the last ten minutes,the sin bin is a bigger deterant than the black card.Any pulling down an opponent,pulling of a jersey should be a straight sin bin.

In addition there is no definition of the tackle.I do not think its something the GAA actually want to grasp because if the tackle was defined and implemented the game would be riddled with frees.personally I would get ride of the picking the ball off the ground rule to speed he game up a bit.

To be honest I would still rather be part of the GAA quirks and all rather than any other sporting organisation.If people did no care they would not feel so emotionally about it.

ifindoubt (Donegal) - Posts: 133 - 01/09/2015 16:56:00    1780101

tearintom
County: Wexford
Posts: 188

2) define the tackle, what is and what isnt, even the black card rule introduced is ambiguos, tug of jersey not a black card unless the player goes to ground, must be intentional etc etc. Bonkers. Define what cynical play actually is, not of this intent crap an sin bin for it.

There has been a clear definition of the tackle in the rule book for the last couple of years and anyway it's always been simple to know.

Side to side and get an open palm on the ball.

Mick Fitzsimons dispossessed a Mayo players brilliant just at the end of the first half near the endline using the correct football tackle.A video of that should be sent to every single coach in the country and everybody who complains about the tackle

uibhfhaili1986 (Offaly) - Posts: 1296 - 01/09/2015 21:10:40    1780280

ifindoubt
I would favour a sin bin to be honest look at the way Mayo took advantage of the Dublin 14 men in the last ten minutes,
There wasn't another score in the game after Connolly got sent off, mainly because he was sent off 3 minutes into injury time! If the black card has no affect on the team committing the foul then someone will have to explain to me why opposition players and spectators alike are roaring for a blackcard after every and any dubious tackle.

Soma (UK) - Posts: 2630 - 01/09/2015 21:17:32    1780286

To those who are saying the GAA isnt what is was in their youth......I challenge them to name one thing that is the same except their own old habits. Thats a big problem with this country.....the fear of change and the fear of moving forward

DoireCityFC (Derry) - Posts: 1580 - 02/09/2015 08:12:21    1780324

This is a report which was in the Indo yesterday which is something along the lines of what the thread is about.

" years later, there are enough cameras in Croke Park to detect a mouse scuttling in the shadows at the dead of night.

Yet, for all the technology, misdemeanours are as common now as then. The texture is different but the trend is even worse.

Last Sunday's semi-final was a typical example. It featured two of the three most talented teams in the country yet they opted for a niggly, mean-spirited approach.

Part of Dublin's response to the threat of Aidan O'Shea's new role as a powerhouse attacker was to foul him repeatedly off the ball, jersey-tugging and obstructing him before he began a run.


Interestingly, referee Joe McQuillan penalised Dublin for fouling O'Shea off the ball just after half-time. It was no different to what had happened earlier so why the change? Did it arise from a conversation between McQuillan and his officials at half-time.

O'Shea wasn't the only one 'getting the treatment'; in the case of Diarmuid Connolly, it worked eventually as he was sent off. Clearly, it was in Mayo's interest for Lee Keegan to 'detain' Connolly on the ground in a tussle, since it kept one of Dublin's best forwards out of the action.

Connolly lashed out and was dismissed while Keegan, probably the guiltier party in starting the incident, got off on yellow. That's the rule, but how fair is it?

Cillian O'Connor was lucky too to escape sanction for the incident which forced Rory O'Carroll out with a serious facial injury early on. But then, Carroll's marking style is close enough to the edge to attract the occasional outbreak of retribution.

This type of borderline stuff now appears to be endemic in the approach taken by most teams.

It's all deeply depressing. Thirty years ago, the main problem related to an inability to detect off-the-ball incidents. Modern cameras solved that but they can't help in the battle against some of the more corrosive practices now infecting the game.

Blaming referees is not the answer. It's easy, but it's missing the point that controlling Gaelic football, as it stands, is beyond the capabilities of any referee. And it will remain so, unless players, managers and coaches change their attitude and allow respect and integrity to breathe."

DLlegends (Donegal) - Posts: 503 - 02/09/2015 10:30:27    1780446

Dj, that column was written by martin breheny, a man who has defended cynical play in the past. He passionately supported Sean cavanagh after the Joe Brolly rant in 2013, effectively saying that cynicism was no big deal. He even went so far as to imply that Cavanaghs tackle that day was noble.
Now all of a sudden hes had a Damascus like conversion?
I hate these underhand tactics too but I wont be taking any morality lessons from Breheny.

joncarter (Galway) - Posts: 2692 - 02/09/2015 19:50:55    1780888